Teri Meets Venice

On Teri's fourth day, we said au revoir to Paris, and caught our short flight to Venice! Although it may be preferable to arrive by train and step through the main doors of the station to get one's first glimpse of Venice, taking a bus from the Marco Polo Airport and arriving at the huge bus terminal isn't too bad either. After all, it is Venice! I will never forget the first time I saw it. It looked like Disneyland, or as I have since discovered, Las Vegas. It did not seem to be real, but indeed it was! There simply is no place on earth like it, and it is one of our favorite destinations.

We met up with our landlord, Marcello, right away and he showed us to our cute two bedroom apartment in a quiet neighborhood next to the university.

Of course, we did lots of walking - all over the city, enjoying many of the local sites: 

the Campanile in the always crowded Piazza San Marco,

the Bridge of Sighs (where prisoners crossing over to the prison sighed as they got their last glimpse of the outside world before going to the dungeon and their death),

the shop where the craftsmen build the gondolas by hand,

the interesting graffiti,

 and of course my favorite, doors and windows.

Buying a multi-day pass for the vaporettos (water buses, Venetian-style public transit) is the best way to get around to see various parts of the city and the outlying islands,

like Giudecca Island,

Burano Island (which we didn't visit on this trip, but did in 2009),

and of course Murano Island, home of the world-famous glassblowing artisans.

 

It was rainy while we were there, so we stopped for lunch, and Teri had some nice hot soup!

Having only 4 nights in Venice, we weren't able to see everything, but I think Teri got a pretty good taste of this incredible Italian city. Speaking of taste, the last two dinners we had in our neighborhood were amazing! Some of the best food on our trip! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures those nights, but I think Sam included some shots in his video. 

Aaaahhhh... just thinking about it makes me long to return - something I hope we'll do in 2015, once again to experience La Biennale, the international art exhibit that takes over the city every other summer. 

Oh, and just one more shot before I close this post...

I told you! Wherever we go, we always see weddings! I guess that's not surprising since we often go to the most romantic locations on earth!

(Don't forget to click on photos to enlarge, follow links when words show up blue, and go to my Flickr page to view a few more photos of this trip.)